HUESO CLAIMS SENATE VICTORY

Margin wide enough for Vargas’ successor to avoid runoff

Voter support for Ben Hueso, allowing him to avoid runoff for Senate seat

Sacramento

San Diego Assemblyman Ben Hueso is expected to take his seat in the state Senate next Thursday after winning a special election that drew scant voter interest.

Hueso received 52.3 percent of the vote — enough to avoid a runoff and give Senate Democrats a two-thirds majority to pass tax and fee bills.

Tuesday’s turnout in San Diego County may wind up challenging all-time low participation marks in local elections, according to Michael Vu, county registrar of voters.

He estimated turnout at or below 14 percent. That could rival the 14.1 percent in a 1996 Sweetwater School District recall election, which is the lowest mark going back to 1980, Vu said.

The turnout in the 40th Senate District’s three counties — San Diego, Imperial and Riverside — was 14.4 percent.

“Maybe it is voter fatigue,” Vu said, noting the number of recent elections and more to come.

Moreover, some of those very same voters in San Diego County will be asked to return to the polls this spring to elect Hueso’s successor in the Assembly.

That special election is expected to draw at least two high-profile candidates: labor leader Lorena Gonzales and former Chula Vista City Councilman Steven Casteneda.

Gov. Jerry Brown has 14 days from the date of Hueso’s resignation to call a special election, which must be held between 126 days and 140 days after that announcement.

“We’ll go down that same road again,” Vu said.

San Diego County voters preferred using the mail. Of the 32,510 ballots counted through Wednesday, about 4,800 had been cast in person.

Special elections take a big bite out of the county’s budget. Vu estimated each costs $900,000.

Hueso will succeed Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, who was elected to Congress in November.

“It is a reaffirmation of the public’s confidence in my work and goals for California,” Hueso said in a statement. “My priorities for the community have remained the same: job creation, increasing opportunities for affordable education, securing clean water supply and ensuring public safety.”

Hueso was challenged by Chula Vista Republicans Hector Gastelum and Xanthi Gionis, as well as fellow Democrat Anna Nevenic of Cathedral City near Palm Springs.

Hueso drew 55.7 percent of the vote in San Diego County, slightly more than his districtwide tally of 52.3 percent.

Second-place finisher Gastelum, who attracted 22 percent of the overall vote, indicated in an email that he may not be ready to bow out of politics.

“This is just the beginning for me,” Gastelum said. “I am also very disappointed in myself that I was not able to inspire a higher amount of financial support and votes to make it to the next round.”

Gionis ended up with 15 percent of the districtwide vote; Nevenic with 10.7 percent.

The 40th Senate district election boundary lines take in Coronado before sweeping south through parts of San Diego, Chula Vista, National City and Imperial Beach. It then turns east along the Mexico border and into Imperial Valley before poking into a tiny part of southern Riverside County.